Hunting at High Altitudes 



northwestern Texas. During the day no settle- 

 ments nor habitations were seen, except an occa- 

 sional section house for the railroad hands. 



Bismarck, however, was full of people, brought 

 there by the gold excitement in the Blackhills. At 

 that time there were about five hundred people in 

 the village, which was on the bluff, about a mile 

 and a half from the Missouri and four miles from 

 Fort Abraham Lincoln 1 on the opposite side. 



It was less than a month before this that the 

 Seventh Cavalry, U. S. A., under command of 

 Lieut.-Col. Geo. A. Custer, had been badly de- 

 feated on the Little Big Horn River, Montana, 

 seven of its companies surrounded by Sioux and 

 Cheyennes, and most of the men killed. 2 A 

 division of the regiment under Major Reno took 

 refuge on a hill-top, was joined by Captain Ben- 

 teen and by the pack-train with ammunition under 

 Captain MacDougal. A little later General Terry 

 came up with a large force of men, the Indians 

 retired, and separating into smaller bands, dis- 

 appeared. It was supposed they were arranging 

 to cross the line into Canada. This report caused 

 steamboat travel on the river to be regarded as 

 somewhat hazardous. However, on the evening 



numbers which follow in the text, refer to the 

 Chapter of Notes by the Editor. 



16 



